Munich: The penultimate fixture of the Round of 16 is upon us as Romania and Netherlands will take the field at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday to try and book their place in the quarterfinals.
Amidst a chaotic final day in the Group Stage, Netherlands’ 3-2 loss against Austria and France’s draw against Poland saw Austria top Group D and the Dutch fell down to third place.
Netherlands forward Memphis Depay insisted that despite the poor start in the Euros, ‘the tournament is only starting now.’
“We must ensure that we learn from our mistakes. We had discussions and criticised each other and it is normal that there is friction if the results do not go as you want them to go. It’s logical that there will be irritations. But that’s behind us now. There’s a good spirit among the group and we are looking forward. The tournament is only starting now,” said Depay to reporters in the pre game conference.
This will be Romania and the Netherlands’ second major tournament meeting, with the Oranje won 2-0 in the group stage at Euro 2008. Romania has reached the knockout round of a major competition for the first time since Euro 2000, when they were eliminated by Italy in the quarterfinals.
Ahead of the matchup, Romania head coach Edward Iordanescu believes his side will ‘give everything on the pitch’.
“I don’t know what we can do in the future but we are very pleased to have reached the next stage. We want to go as far as we can. We are facing a fantastic and very hard test. We all are aware of this. But we also know that we will do what we’ve always done: give everything on the pitch,” said Romania coach.
